Treatment for Gum Disease

If you are lucky you will never need any treatment for gum disease. At least, hopefully nothing beyond the general good dental hygiene practices and preventative measures everyone should be using. Even if it does become necessary to go through one of the various treatment options for gum disease, you can comfort yourself by knowing that this isn’t the worst disaster in the history of the world. After all the Titanic sunk.

So your dentist has recommended a treatment for gum disease. You can be assured that you still have a fighting chance at saving your gums and teeth now. There is nothing more helpful than positive thinking. Odds are good one of the following treatment plans are what are waiting in your future.

• Pocket reduction
• Regeneration
• Soft tissue graft

The reason the anaerobic bacteria, the bacteria that causes gum disease is so damaging is that it invades the gum line. After a certain amount of time, the bacteria create pockets in between the gum and the teeth. Not only are the gums damaged, but the teeth can form uneven spots as deeply as the roots, depending on the gum damage. The treatment for gum disease for this particular occurrence is a pocket reduction. The dentist will very carefully remove and kill all of the bacteria effectively creating a clean, disease free environment. From there, he or she will even out any blemishes on the teeth. With the bacteria gone, the gums eventually reattach to the surface of the teeth and gum disease has been beaten again.

In more complex cases of gum disease, it is necessary to take a stronger course of action. If left alone, gum disease can damage the underlying bone in the jaw. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why this has to be treated quickly. As with the pocket reduction, the dentist has to eliminate the bacteria before any further treatment can happen. Once that is done, a solution of genetic compounds is applied to the damaged area. The hope is that the bone will regenerate itself and the negative effects of gum disease will be eliminated.

When gum disease has gotten so bad that the tissue of the gums themselves is dissolving, your dentist will pull out the big guns and attempt a soft tissue graft. Tissue and skin from the roof of the mouth is removed to be placed over the damaged gum tissue with this treatment of gum disease. Sometimes several sessions have to happen for a successful graft.